Coin operated dispensing mechanisms have heretofore been made, for example as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,925,898; 3,403,765 and 3,550,744, having a coin chute providing a gravity drop for coins from a coin receiving slot to a coin stop and with coin gauging pawls extending into one side of the coin chute to provide abutments for engaging certain combination of coins in the chute to block upward movement of the same and thereby control operation of the dispensing mechanism. However, it is frequently desirable to control operation of the dispensing mechanism in response to various different combinations of the coins including coins of several different denominations. Some of the prior coin responsive mechanisms, for example those shown in the aforementioned U.S. Pats. Nos. 2,925,898 and 3,403,765 utilize multiple coin chutes in order to accommodate various different combinations of coins of different denominations. Such coin responsive mechanisms are relatively complex and expensive not only because of duplication of the number of coin chutes, but also because of the increased complexity of the mechanisms for sensing the different combinations of coins in the several chutes and for controlling operation of the dispensing mechanism in response to coins in either one or the other or both chutes.
There are also dispensing machines, for example machines for dispensing newspapers, which must be operated part time for example during dispensing of weekly newspapers, in response to different coin combinations having one total monetary value and must be operated at other times, for example when dispensing Sunday newspapers, in response to coin combinations having a different total monetary value. It has been proposed, for example as shown in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 2,925,898, to provide two sets of pawls, one for gauging coin combinations corresponding to the monetary value of daily newspapers and others for gauging coin combinations corresponding to the monetary value of Sunday newspapers, and to selectively hold back the Sunday pawls by clamp on week days. However, the multiple chute type coin responsive mechanism further complicates this type of operation.